Related articles

The couple had been left with “a deep-rooted antipathy” to the trust over its plans to build a bird hide on neighbouring Sherborne Estate in Gloucestershire – now home of the BBC Autumnwatch series, which starts again tonight.

Now, following Mrs Collins’ death from cancer three years ago, aged 65, the National Trust stands to inherit the pair’s entire estate.

Judge Jeremy Cousins, QC, ruled last week that Mr Collins lacks the mental capacity to make a new will.

Mr Collins was head of Arlington Park Real Estate and Chevron Properties before he was struck down by dementia in his 60s.

The judge said Mr Collins was sectioned in 2007 after the attack on his wife.

He has been living in a private care home since 2008 and his wife, being 10 years his junior, had expected to survive him.

But she died in 2014, weeks after contracting “extremely aggressive” cancer.

Her half share in the homes passed to her incapacitated husband.

The judge said the dispute with the National Trust broke out in 2005 and “loomed very large” in the couple’s lives.

They fiercely objected to the charity building a bird hide near their home, Broadwater House, in Sherborne.

Martin Lewis: Why you need to get a will right now

Mon, October 10, 2016

This Morning’s money saving expert explains why you need to protect yourself in the event of death, divorce and dementia on the ITV show today